Bringing IAEA Safeguards in the United States into the 21st Century

Abstract The United States (U.S.) has allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to apply safeguards to its civil nuclear facilities since 1980, by which time the U.S. had established the necessary infrastructure to support IAEA safeguards implementation. The State System of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (SSAC) included developing the necessary procedures, system of records and reports, equipment, experts and organizational structure to meet IAEA safeguarding requirements. After nearly four decades following initial implementation, the U.S. is engaged in multiple efforts to bring the SSAC infrastructure into the 21st Century. Beginning in 2011, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has worked with its licensees to update all of the required IAEA Design Information Questionnaires (DIQ) and Transitional Facility Attachments (TFA) for selected licensed facilities under the Reporting Protocol to the US-IAEA Voluntary Offer Safeguards Agreement INFCIRC/288. This activity, now nearly complete, entailed extensive revisions as some of the DIQs and TFAs. In 2016, the U.S. and the IAEA agreed to apply an amendment to modify the Small Quantities Protocol to the U.S.-IAEA Agreement for the Application of Safeguards in Connection with The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, i.e., the “Tlatelolco Safeguards Agreement.” Bringing this amendment into force in July 2018 required changes in the U.S. regulations for possessors of nuclear material in the US Caribbean Territories. Other improvements to U.S. reporting to the IAEA have been made by the Department of Commerce under the Additional Protocol and Department of Energy using the national nuclear material accountancy database with the goal of enhancing its tracking and reporting capabilities. The expected combined outcome of all of these projects is a more efficient and modern infrastructure that will facilitate the implementation of safeguards in the U.S. This paper will address the development of these projects, including the challenges encountered and the expected future ones.